State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Appoints Alesha Moreno-Ramirez as New Director of the Multilingual Support Division

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that he has appointed Alesha Moreno-Ramirez as the new Director of the Multilingual Support Division at the California Department of Education (CDE).

The Multilingual Support Division provides information and resources to serve the unique needs of multilingual students so that each person will meet or exceed high standards of achievement in academic and non-academic skills.

“Alesha is an accomplished leader with a depth of knowledge regarding high-level multilingual best practices and policies,” said Thurmond. “She is a strong advocate and champion for all students and believes the linguistic and cultural assets English learners bring to California schools enrich the lives of all of the state's 6.1 million TK–12 public school students and their communities. She brings to the position extensive experience with equity, multilingual learner rights, and social justice issues along with an unwavering focus and commitment to do what is best to ensure the needs of multilingual, English learner, dual language, migrant, and immigrant students and their families are being met. I am pleased to add an educator with her passion and dedication to the CDE leadership team.”

Moreno-Ramirez has worked in education for over two decades. From 1998–2002, she was a bilingual classroom teacher in Salinas, and from 2002–04 she was a multilingual literacy coach and family support and outreach facilitator before transitioning to an administrator role from 2004–2013 at the Fresno County Office of Education. Prior to joining CDE, Moreno-Ramirez was a multilingual language arts and English language development staff development and curriculum administrator for the Tulare County Office of Education. Moreno-Ramirez focused on the capacity-building efforts of educational leaders through professional learning and improvement science principles in PS–12 multilingual education and multilingual learner services.

Moreno-Ramirez holds a bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages—Spanish from Santa Clara University and a master’s degree in education curriculum and teaching from Fresno Pacific University. She replaces Veronica Aguila, who is now retired. Moreno-Ramirez started in her new position as Multilingual Support Division Director on July 1, 2021.

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Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100